8627                ASTROCYTOMA OF THE CORD

The patient was a man aged 37 whose illness began about 2 years before death. At the onset the symptoms and signs pointed to a lesion involving the anterior horn cells of L3 - S1 segments. The chief complaints were backache, aching pain in the groin and weakness and dragging of the left leg. These symptoms culminated in complete paralysis of the legs. At his death he was greatly emaciated, with extreme kyphosis, pressure sores over the left ribs, the iliac crests, the sacrum and buttocks.

The specimen consists of 27 cms of the spinal cord. An ovoid vascular tumour 6 cms in length and 2 cms in width replaces the cord just above the centre of the specimen. Above this level there is gross secondary syringomyelia with brown degenerate gelatinous tissue lining a large cylindrical central cavity. Similar changes are present below the tumour. Histology shows anaplastic vascular astrocytic glioma.